Captivated

Falling Stars

This is for 1DERDOG. Your comments are really sweet. Enjoy!

I started to run. The false trail I set up would buy me no more than half an hour; Then they would realise I hadn't gone that way, at all.

If I was lucky then they wouldn't realise that it was a false trail and that I was, in fact, heading in the opposite direction, but I felt like I had used up all my luck already. I could only rely on one thing now and it was my own intellect.

Despite the clear skies, there was a slight biting breeze that sent the trees swaying slightly, side to side. Every so often, the occasional low hanging branch would snag onto my clothing but I pushed on regardless despite the rapidly growing tears my jumper was getting.

If I could just reach a town, a motorway, anything, then I would be safe. I would have escaped.

I would be home.

A burn started, first in my side, then in my thighs as I forced, relentlessly, for my body to keep going. The woods were eerily silent as if the trees and animals were holding their breaths as they anxiously waited to see the outcome of my escape. My breaths were loud and harsh, the only sound apart from the rhythm of my feet smacking into the floor.

My body cried for me to stop and rest but my mind cried for me to continue and run.

I couldn't hear the wolves.

Why couldn't I hear them?

Was I so far away that I couldn't hear them?

Or were they so close that they were silently hunting me down?

As I blindly ran deeper and deeper into the woods, driven by fear and anxiety, the tension grew and grew. Each second that passed felt like a minute and each minute felt like the chances of being caught grew.

Suddenly there was a searing pain across my right cheek as a thin branch whipped into my face, sending me reeling backwards. I clutched my stinging cheek and collapsed on the ground in a winded heap.

One minute.

One minute to rest and then I have to keep moving.

I laid back, gasping in pain as my body struggled to catch up to its lack of oxygen. It was unnerving hearing my harsh pants against the quiet backdrop. I took a few more deep breaths, forcing the air in and out of my chest whilst cradling my cheek and then got up again.

I had to keep moving.

The woods thickened in some places and thinned in some. The only reassurance I had that I was going in the right direction was the occasional glimpses of the moon I got. The moon was oddly large tonight, almost a perfect circle.

Tomorrow night, it will be a perfect circle. It would be a full moon.

Tomorrow night, I had to be safe.

How much longer did I have until they discovered the false trail? The woods were quiet - too quiet. It was eerie and echoey, painfully enunciating every step, every breath.

I stopped for a minute, painstakingly breathing in and out. I had to check if I really was going the right way.

I could tell from the way that the sun rose which way east was and west from the sunset. I remember my grandfather taught me a trick to remember which way would be north or south just by knowing which way was east and west; Face your right palm west and your left palm east and the direction your body would face would be south. I did as my grandfather taught me and gratefully corrected my course. If I wasn't careful, I could end up walking back in circles.